How NOT to Make a PC - feat. HP

[AdamFromLTT]

HP is making some BOLD claims about their Z2 Mini G9 workstations, but can HP’s new workstation match the performance and the equally bold claims of the Mac Studio?
 

 

[da na]

As a Z workstation owner, it's honestly a bit sad to see HP doing so poorly and just shoving a laptop board into a little rectangle. There were some versions of these little workstations with MXM modules and socketed CPUs IIRC, but it seems those days are gone... 

[TomChaai]

Working for HP as a system engineer must be hard, you got your qualifications, years of experience and all the ambition.

Your task: Going through all the stress-induced headaches to achieve the impossible performance specs your dipshit boss invents, pulling as much as you can to make the miracle happen, then still gets roasted by the community in the end.

[Ultraforce]

21 minutes ago, TomChaai said:

Working for HP as a system engineer must be hard, you got your qualifications, years of experience and all the ambition.

Your task: Going through all the stress-induced headaches to achieve the impossible performance specs your dipshit boss invents, pulling as much as you can to make the miracle happen, then still gets roasted by the community in the end.

I have pretty much only heard good things of their US only laptop the HP Dev One which is meant for developers and as an alternative to the Lenovo ThinkPads

[Shizzmoney]

$2300? In THIS economy?

[CyberneticTitan]

I'd argue the A2000 is closer to the 3060, with just a few compute units disabled and a harsh 70W fixed power limit.

[themrsbusta]

If they used Ryzen and Radeon, probably should be running fine.

[SkyHound0202]

They could've just use the T-series 35W processors, or even the 65W standard ones. Though they will still draw much greater power (generating more heat) at peak turbo.

[NomBread]

Well it is a business computer and nobody is buying these to game on. Instead of testing games on both systems they could have tested different benches or work programs to compare the information and I feel like this video is just bias on hp up against the mac studio.

[tkitch]

1 hour ago, NomBread said:

Well it is a business computer and nobody is buying these to game on. Instead of testing games on both systems they could have tested different benches or work programs to compare the information and I feel like this video is just bias on hp up against the mac studio.

bruh, their i9 lost to an i7.  That's a shit physical design.  That ain't gonna change.

[NomBread]

20 minutes ago, tkitch said:

bruh, their i9 lost to an i7.  That's a shit physical design.  That ain't gonna change.

Hp offers a workstation with an i7 so why not buy both and test them. Never mentioned the cpu in my comment just that they could have handled the data differently.

[tkitch]

8 minutes ago, NomBread said:

Hp offers a workstation with an i7 so why not buy both and test them. Never mentioned the cpu in my comment just that they could have handled the data differently.

okay, they did run benches beyond just games, and the mac wiped the floor on almost all of them.

[NomBread]

51 minutes ago, tkitch said:

okay, they did run benches beyond just games, and the mac wiped the floor on almost all of them.

Like linus said in the video using pugetbench you can't compare them apples to apples and one of the tests could not even run plus showing the data for thermals section on cinebench, blender and geekbench did not show how it compared to the mac studio kinda unfair a little.

[Needfuldoer]

If only they could have gotten away with using the blowymatrons from the 1RU Proliant servers...

 

I'd like to see a follow-up where the gang tries some janky cooling fixes to make this thing into what it promises it's supposed to be (if that's even reasonably possible).

[An0maly_76]

HP is the EPITOME of how not to make a PC.

Edited July 11, 2022 by An0maly_76
Revised, more info

[tkitch]

1 hour ago, NomBread said:

Like linus said in the video using pugetbench you can't compare them apples to apples and one of the tests could not even run plus showing the data for thermals section on cinebench, blender and geekbench did not show how it compared to the mac studio kinda unfair a little.

because the mac didn't thermal throttle?

 

Face it, the hp box is built like shit.  That's not news, hp builds fucking TERRIBLE computers.

[NomBread]

1 hour ago, tkitch said:

because the mac didn't thermal throttle?

 

Face it, the hp box is built like shit.  That's not news, hp builds fucking TERRIBLE computers.

The video felt a bit baity and the product works fine but it seems HP just needs to remove the option for a 12900k and maybe stick with the i7 instead.

[crazzp]

1 hour ago, NomBread said:

The video felt a bit baity and the product works fine but it seems HP just needs to remove the option for a 12900k and maybe stick with the i7 instead.

I don't know how you would feel the video is baity. The configuration is trash, paying more for less performance.

[maplepants]

5 hours ago, crazzp said:

I don't know how you would feel the video is baity. The configuration is trash, paying more for less performance.

Agreed, this isn't click bait. HP made a "too good to be true" config option, and LTT were just confirming that it was in fact too good to be true. This is the kind of thing I like them doing the most.

 

This is the kind of thing I'd have my work buy me for a Linux workstation and so it's nice to see a deep dive here this specific config.

[Needfuldoer]

5 hours ago, crazzp said:

The configuration is trash, paying more for less performance.

I assume the i9 SKU is only there to placate the "bigger number more better" management crowd.

[tkitch]

8 hours ago, NomBread said:

The video felt a bit baity and the product works fine but it seems HP just needs to remove the option for a 12900k and maybe stick with the i7 instead.

What about it is click bait?

They demonstrated with actual numbers a series of ways in which the HP is actually trash.  Click Bait would be saying it's trash and then it just kinda is fine, or works well.  

 

It wasn't fine, and it certainly did not work well.  It was fuckin' trash.

[Dedayog]

18 hours ago, Shizzmoney said:

$2300? In THIS economy?

The economy is one major reason that the price is that high.  Looked at housing lately?  Gas?  Food?

 

Everything is more expensive, your comment was kinda off.

[ToboRobot]

HPs failure to include a shroud in such a custom product seems odd.  Rushed to market?

[darknessblade]

49 minutes ago, ToboRobot said:

HPs failure to include a shroud in such a custom product seems odd.  Rushed to market?

Which is quite Ironic, as all their old workstation PC's used to come with a shroud for their shitty cooling solution.

 

I frankenmodded a HP cooler with 2 90mm fans, standoffs, and loong screws, and it runs 3x as cool under Idle, with the fans at a mere 50% [Manual adjustable with a fan-controller]

 

 

Its like their slogan is: Overengineered hardware* in a 30 year old case.

*hardware does not include PC components.

[manikyath]

from the title and thumbnail i thought LTT was gonna rip on a deskmini, and i thought "why? they are great little boxes" then i watched the video, heard it was about a Z-mini, and laughed...

 

the Z-mini series as a whole is a poor attempt at shoving a workstation in a mini formfactor, bunging up the hardware choices, and still selling loads of them to companies whi think they need a powerful workstation but they actually dont, so the thing ends up doing fine.

 

and then as if sticking 56 of them in a rack is somehow a redeeming quality in a time where we have GPU paravirtualization and multisession hosts. i bet that rackmount thing was invented to sell Zcentral to enterprises.

 

HP: manufacturer of some of the best wheels on the market, but sometimes they get the bright idea to reinvent the wheel, and end up with a car on square manhole covers.